Your smarmy act is tedious and immature, and totally unbecoming of a supposedly legitimate editor at a supposedly legitimate paper. Anonymous commenters and citizen bloggers can write this way, but one expects a higher level of discourse from someone in your position. Any insight or truth you may reveal is completely obscured by comments like:

"If they spend any money at all in Lowell it's to have their car windows tinted so students can't see them driving out of Dodge. God forbid if a kid stops them in the street to say hello. They'd probably call 911."

Give us news and stay above the fray. And most of all, GROW UP!

In yesterdays Sun, a local teacher announced his candidacy for School Committee, normally such an announcement is a typical run-of-the-mill thing. Included in his announcement was a statement that was truly disturbing. He stated that one in five LHS freshmen were reading at or below fourth grade level. Think about that one for a second. Where are these freshmen coming from? How did they manage to get promoted to fifth grade, let alone high school. Something is broken in the Lowell public school system. If any of us in private industry put forth lackluster performance day in and day out, we'd be lucky to have a job, never mind a 9 percent raise. It's the teachers responsibility to promote or to retain. Jim, it would be interesting to see the numbers on how many kids "stayed back" last year. I feel that the teachers should consider themselves lucky to be offered 6 percent considering the product they are putting out.

Anonymous, come out of the bushes.
As editor and a resident of Lowell, I have as much say as you do in what's going right and wrong in Lowell. And I'm not afraid to write my opinions like you are to show your face. There are certain liberals and politicians who would like to cut me off from comment - and they have tried - but I won't stop calling a spade a spade until one of them buys the newspaper.
The teachers in this city have gotten their way for far too long. The average pay for a 180-day teacher in Lowell is $59,000. For the 800 who leave Lowell every day, that's $47,200,000 in disposal income. What does Lowell get in return? Twenty-two failing schools and 25 percent of the freshmen class at the high school that can't read.
And these teachers don't want to accept a health insurance plan that not only offers more options for their entire union membership, but will also save a buck or two for the city, which is facing fiscal woes.
I'll debate you or anyone on what's wrong with the public school system, and it starts with a union that is unwilling to transform itself for the educational needs of today's students.
The creative class of teachers can't get ahead fast enough to stay in the education field, because of a caste system of salaries that rewards longevity instead of performance.
What are teachers afraid of?
Let's hear more of your smarmy excuses for a status quo system that contunues to hamper progress rather than create it.

If I were the city, I'd dare them to strike. Go ahead. Show us how intelligent you really are by walking the plank for a slimeball like Georges.

Walk away from those cushy 1/2 year jobs that let you retire at 80%, at an earlier age than any private sector worker, only to go on and collect another paycheck elsewhere. Show us how gutless you really are by sitting back silently and letting union leadership jeopardize your livelyhood. We all know a good chunk of you don't want to do it and are more than happy with the raise and health care plan proposed by the city. Too bad there isn't a sack of courage among the group to stand up in those union meetings and say what you really think.

Read the tea leaves people. Public sentiment has turned against you. The average Joe can't sympathize with your demands anymore. You can't win the public relations battle. You did decades ago when you were truly underpaid, but those days are long gone.

jim, you totally miss the point, which is not surprising.

this is not about whether the teachers are right or wrong. and i don't have any excuse for a status quo system. nor did i make one in my original post. i am not on the teachers' side here.

but you write this ridiculous post filled with generalizations and personal attacks on the teachers and where they spend their free time or where they try to park. it's completely absurd. let your columnists do your dirty work. you're supposed to maintain some semblance of dignity or couth. at least that's what any person with even a trace of understanding about journalism would expect. i've never seen or heard of any editor-in-chief flying off the handle this way.

you really think that if a student said hi on the street, the teacher would call 911? you are completely unhinged.

if you must throw your opinions around, why can't you just write a civil, coherent, readable attack, dissecting the union's position? instead of this ridiculous rant over someone driving a mercedes?

get your act together. you're a stain on the sun's image and you make it very difficult to take seriously.

How about a little vocabulary lesson for our English teachers out there.

Lemming (noun)-A short-tailed, furry rodent known for its peculiar habit of committing mass suicide by hurling itself -- along with hundreds of other Lemmings -- over steep cliffs and into the ocean.

Throw that one at Mr. Georges during your next union meeting.

Lucy in the sky with diamonds:

I'm about as unhinged as Paul Georges is.

And I'm glad my words are penetrating the skin. Int his business I've learned that you have to write down to the audience to be effective.

Please write again.

You really need to stop generalizing your attacks Mr. Editor. it truly makes you sound idiotic and your argument becomes weakened. I was born and raised in Lowell. I lived in some of Lowell's so called bad neighborhoods as a kid. I went to public schools and have only wonderful things to say about my teachers, many of whom still teach. I own two houses AND pay taxes in Lowell. I persuaded my new wife 6 years ago to leave her hometown so we can raise a family in Lowell. I volunteer my time every week for BOTh youth soccer and baseball as a coach. I volunteer my time to clean up my neighborhood park. And guess what Mr. Editor? I'm also a teacher!!! You write as if I (and other proud lowellian teachers) do not exist! This is why you have no credibility in your rants, some teachers don't live in Lowell, some do. Some cops don't live in Lowell,some do. etc... You have no argument for this, that is why you never mention it.

I'm just curious sir, when you were living Andover was YOUR salary disposable? Are you a better editor NOW that you live IN Lowell?

I wonder, have you met with teachers? Have you met with students? Have you taken time out of your busy day to ask the Superintendent if you could sit in on classes (all grade levels) and get a real clue of what& who you love to berate?

What difference do it make where people live? How many people who work at the SUN live in Lowell? How about that work at Crosspoint? How about our friends the Spinners, do all of them live in Lowell?

Like "Lucy the Dog" above I am frustrated and appalled by your inability to capture truth or reason in your statement.

FYI, My daughter loves a few Lowell High teachers & when we say "Hello" not only do they not speed away in thier cars, they stop thier busy lives (off the clock) to ask how we are.

Oh! Why doesn't everyone in the work force work 3 extra hours a day, every day of their work year for three years & only be guaranteed payment from an obviously debit ridden employer for one year then tell teachers how that's fair & how much of a great buisness deal that is.

P.S. I think you stink

You said:

For a majority of the teachers, it was the first time in their lives seeing Lowell after 6 p.m.
That in itself was a cause of celebration.

Too bad the Chamber of Commerce wasn't alerted. It could have told shop owners to stay open for some extra business. Then again, why bother. All these teachers know of Lowell is what they see in their rear-view mirrors on the way out of town each day.

If they spend any money at all in Lowell it's to have their car windows tinted so students can't see them driving out of Dodge. God forbid if a kid stops them in the street to say hello. They'd probably call 911.

I say:

I am a teacher, new to Lowell, who works at one of those so-called "failing schools." Of the 8 teachers who work in my wing, 5 of them live in Lowell. Most of them even grew up in Lowell. So your argument just doesn't make sense, and the inflammatory rhetoric is unbecoming to someone who claims to be a journalist.

I propose Mr. C, that we trade places for a day. I can write your column, and you come teach my classes. At the end of the day, I'd be willing to bet that your job is FAR MORE of a cakewalk then mine. Anyone can spew venom and throw words around, but it takes something more to motivate and excite a roomful of students.

Jim C. says: Hey, New Teach congratulations. I hope you stick it out in Lowell. Odds are you'll quit teaching in the first five years because your energy and dynamism will be worn down by a union and educational culture that rewards mediocrity rather than promoting the creative class. I'd love to swap with you. But what will I do after 5 hours and 55 minutes of work? I'm here 12 hours a day, 9 working at my day job and then three hours a night at 4 events a week, from Ayer to Billerica, representing The Sun at local events. Funny, I rarely see any teachers at these events.

In the introduction to your blog, you write, "Paine was a master at personal attacks and character assassination when the cause for patriotic vindictiveness was essential. We have won our liberty - and are thankful for it so we don't need to engage in Paine's vitriolic method of communication."

Yet, I see nothing BUT vitriol and character assassination in your tirade against the teachers' union. Right or wrong, they are professionals. You should be one, too, and live up to your own words.

I am absolutely embarassed to have the Lowell Sun represent this fine city. You sound like a whining two year old. Lesley has a wonderful teacher program. Why don't you quit complaining, get certified and join the classroom. No...you are all mouth and no gut. Students in Lowell are incredibly lucky you have a cushy desk job instead of tormenting them in a class room with your nonsense.

Dear Anonymously Irrelevant,

I've been offered several teaching jobs, one as a motivational speaker. I love what I do, bringing truth to the public and sticking up for taxpayers against the tax raiders. I think teaching is a noble profession. It's too bad, however, that a union mentality exists in Lowell that denies opportunities and resources to kids. I have seen slight improvements in the schools, but it doesn't keep up with the increase in salaries for both teachers and administrators. It's about time the residents of Lowell get what they deserve: an honest return for their buck. In this case with the union, the taxpayers are the underdogs and they deserve to win for once. All they've gotten is 22 failing schools and a ton of grievances from teachers who like to take MOndays and Fridays off

Striker 17, who is generalizing? Twenty-two failing schools for $1 billion invested in the Lowell public school system since 1993. Teacher salaries have increased 50 percent since 1995 in Lowell. Where's the return to taxpayers? Higher teacher absenteeism and a lack of accountability?
Georges has been a master at deflecting the real issues and now the public is fed up.

This money / benefit grabbing has to stop somewhere. The taxpayers are fed up and the teacher's union needs to realize this. No matter how many times Paul Georges goes on the radio whining and no matter how he tries to spin it, the teachers in this city are very well taken care of. They should all have to spend a couple of years in the private sector before being hired as teachers to realize just how well they are treated. They bennies they receive are unheard of in the real world. Why don't they voluntarily agree to a performance based system. We taxpayers would be happy to help them weed out the underperformers and pay the performers what they are worth.

You make idiotic generalizations such as "If they spend any money in Lowell it's to have their car windows tinted so students can't see them driving out of Dodge.God Forbid if a kid stops them in the street to say hello. They would probably call 911." That is a generalization!! Mr. Georges only speaks in facts, he wants the Health Care issue negotiated, plain and simple. You keep trying to fall back on the teachers don't live in Lowell whine. Some of our best teachers live in Lowell, some don't. That has nothing to do with negotiating health care benefits. The City Manager doesn't even live in Lowell!! Your argument is so shortsighted and sophmoric that most people are laughing. You should be ashamed of what you wrote in your Blog yesterday, deep down I'm sure you are. If you want to write Blogs about the facts, healthcare etc.. Go ahead, those are useful and provide information that people need. To attempt to humiliate teachers by trying to write of how they feel towards students and Lowell is a total disgrace to you and your newspaper. BTW- when I see my students (present and former) around town I usually stop and ask them how they are doing. I usually end every one of those conversations with something encouraging. I was going to get tinted windows last month but I decided to buy my students ("the ones I'm so afraid of") pizza for their efort. Oh well, maybe next month.

name calling, insults, over blown rhetoric and more. Is the purpose here to figure out how to improve the schools and provide all Lowell kids with economic opportunity or is the purpose to see how much folks can insult teachers who have one of the most difficult jobs on the planet? To assume that teachers somehow are being blindly manipulated by their union is part of the larger anti-union sentiment alive and well across the country. The rela issue in front of everyoner who cares about Lowell is how we, as a city, are going to hold on to talented teachers and foster a school system we all can be proud of. The easy rant that teachers only work half a year is wrong, by the way.

Bob, your'e right, and it';s too bad Massachusetts has lost its creative class or is unwilling to implement the strategies that could improve public schools. The Pioneer Institute and MassInc. have been devising strategies for years, but the unions - sorry Bob - continue to lobby, and successfully so, against merit pay, expanding charter schools, expanded school days, and innovative teaching methods that rely on teacher flexibility. Look at a school budget, any school budget, and show me the creativity in the millions of dollars that are being spent. Administrators have to share the blame too. They are afraid to take risks in trying to meet the new educational challenges presented by urban environments. So they stick to the status quo. Lowell school leaders and city fathers have to engage the public and business leaders in an initiative that is not a social event, but a year round effort to set goals and meet them. Building student and adult proficiency have to work hand-and-hand. Wiping out poverty has to be part of the dynamic. Changing a culture of low expectatiions in every household has to be fundamental to this initiative. Lowell has some great minds - and fine educators - but we're not leveraging the talents of the public schools, UMass Lowell, Middlesex Community College and our public assets - people with ideas - to connect the dots for the great single push that is needed and that must be sustained for at least five years.
Lowell can do it. But where is the will to do it.

First, is it unreasonable to want to stay even with inflation (7-9%)and maintain our current level of benefits? I woulkd expect that you or your employees would not expect tomgo backwards in your compenstation whtever it may be. That is all we are asking, not to get rich, but to stay even, that is not unreasonable.

Teachers are not all that is wrong with the system. Parents and families, therefore, kids are not as good as they were. Administrators, especially those in Loweell, are totally incompetent, indeed, it is the teachers that have held the schools together in spite of our extremely poor leadership. The elementary and middle schools are a disaster and the current set of "initiatives " are gross failures. Teacher's have rejected the potential seed grants, because we know they are a nwaste of taxpayer money --- yes, it will provide more funds for our incompetent asdministrators to pass around, but the teacher's will be ;left doing the work and getting blammed for the subsequent and inevitable failure. Refusing the grant can be thought of as the teachers looking out for the taxpayers.

Dear Anonymous,

If your crude thinking, poor sentence structure and personal attacks are all you have in your basket, I fear for the kids that you teach. And that's the problem I guess. People like you survive while young, decent teachers get terminated under the Georges eat-your-children-union-mentality. That being said, Sun employees pay an increasing share of health-care costs every year. We don't break even from inflation costs. If the company can't foot the entire bill for increased costs, workers have to take the extra burden. It's called the private sector, something you have no knowledge of after living and working off the fat of the taxpayers' land all these years.
Finally, the union can't take it now that city government and taxpayers are fighting back for all the largesse teachrs have received while other city workers went without.
Now about wasted initiatives, just get to the point: You are "tired" after working 5 hours and 55 minutes in the classroom each day. Say it. That's what the union gave as an excuse last year when it defeated a proposal for an extended school day in Lowell. Oh, yeah, you're for the kids!

Dear Anonymous,

If your crude thinking, poor sentence structure and personal attacks are all you have in your basket, I fear for the kids that you teach. And that's the problem I guess. People like you survive while young, decent teachers get terminated under the Georges eat-your-children-union-mentality. That being said, Sun employees pay an increasing share of health-care costs every year. We don't break even from inflation costs. If the company can't foot the entire bill for increased costs, workers have to take the extra burden. It's called the private sector, something you have no knowledge of after living and working off the fat of the taxpayers' land all these years.
Finally, the union can't take it now that city government and taxpayers are fighting back for all the largesse teachrs have received while other city workers went without.
Now about wasted initiatives, just get to the point: You are "tired" after working 5 hours and 55 minutes in the classroom each day. Say it. That's what the union gave as an excuse last year when it defeated a proposal for an extended school day in Lowell. Oh, yeah, you're for the kids!

Jim,

Given your writing skills, it's precious that you would go after anyone else's.

Open Invitation:

Is there any reporter, copy editor, paginator, photographer, or staff member at the Lowell Sun who would like to publicly come out and say they support their editor-in-chief, not on the merits of who's wrong or right in the contract dispute, but rather, on his:

(1) blatant disregard for how his rantings may affect the educated public's perception on whether the Sun can be trusted to fairly and accurately report on the teacher's union contract dispute

(2) odd comfort with launching personal attacks against commenters on this post who (unlike me, but like anonymous 9:40) haven't even attacked him personally

(3) assertion that on the whole, teachers in Lowell don't care about (a) their students and (b) the city

(4) assertion that teachers have cushy jobs because they only work 5 hours and 55 minutes a day

I'd just like to hear a well-articulated defense, if one can possibly exist, from another Sun voice. And I'm absolutely dying to know if there's really anyone in that newsroom as deranged as your leader. My guess would be that everyone cringes with each word Jim types, but I could very well be wrong.

FYI-

This blog is pointless. It is controlled by Jim C. I have responded with some wonderful points that somehow did not make it to the Blog. Hmm, I wonder why? I suggest that anyone who is against Mr. Editor (and we all know there are alot of us) stop wasting their time with this Blog. Mr. Editor is only going to print what he wants, it's not even a real Blog because he and the Lowell Sun control the responses. Let's stop wasting our time, I think he knows how wrong he was with his disgusting generalizations about teachers.

Teachers have become the biggest whiners in the world. Every time someone calls them on something, they fire back the same old tired rhetoric. "Get into a classroom and then we'll talk" "We have one of the toughest jobs in the world" BLAH BLAH BLAH!

Why don't you take Jim's advice and go work in the private sector for a few months, you bunch of hacks. Try trading places with the janitor in your building. Or how about you trade with the bus drivers. Or maybe sanitation workers. Or how about a factory worked. You'll run back to the classroom so fast your shoes will leave skid marks.

Stop whining and do your jobs. You're contributions are valued by society. Your paychecks reflect that. But your unions and your whining are killing your reputation.

Just a heads up:

Jim C. and the Lowell Sun only let certain posts onto this Blog. Therefore it is not really a Blog since it is controlled My Mr. Editor. I have shot some legitimate questions back towards Mr. Jim C. about his disgusting attack on teachers and how they are afraid of kids etc... Guess what? I have yet to see them posted. Hmm, I wonder why? All people who are against Mr. Editors' childish rant should stop wasting their time trying to post on this so called blog. The Lowell Sun and Mr. Editor only allow on what they want read. This probably will not be posted so I for one am done wasting my time.

FYI: The middle school day in Lowell is 6 hours 55 minutes long. Some schools have different hours but a typical day is 8:00-2:50 with the students. Of course, much more time is spent in the classroom before and after school, not to mention at home. By the way, this regular school day is already longer than almost all other districts in the state. The UTL agreed to this longer school day in a previous contract. Please do your homework before you make up things you know nothing about. I mean, even a rookie reporter could call a few schools to find out their hours.

JIm C says: Teachers spend only 5 hours and 55 minutes in the classroom, teaching students, by contract. What they do with the other hour is eat lunch and prepare a lesson plan. At least that is what they are supposed to do.

WBK and JC why the hostility and invective - bad teacher or two some time in your life? Over blown rhetoric does not deflate the argument that teaching is a very hard job, and teaching in a resource challenged urban school system is harder still. Does that mean some folks do not do a good job - sure. But my guess is that goes for anywhere you have a workforce. Somefolks do the work of three while others skate by- that's saddly reality. So, if we want our kids to learn how to read and write and do their numbers and make it in today's highly competitive, hig tech world please explain to me how union bashing will help. Even if you waved a magic wand and made the teacher's union disappear, the problems would persist inside the buildings. We need to build a culture of education across the city - not tear the school system down. A community is, after all, know for the schools it keeps.

Jim C says: Bob, why is stating the facts always called teacher bashing? Just like if you criticize stupid programs and spending in the schools, you are called anti-education. Or if a taxpayer doesn't want to increase a teacher's salary, he or she is called anti-teacher? Get over it.

What passes for truth in your so-called blog is nothing more than a rant filled with exaggeration, mischaracterization, and bumper sticker slogans.

The truths you purport to tell in your rant are so far from the realities I’ve witnessed in the three years I’ve taught at Lowell High School that I’m stunned you (the editor of the Lowell Sun) appear to know so little about the community and its employees you are covering. The truth is, I once shared many of your opinions about teachers and their profession. To put it simply, I used to think teachers were under-worked, over-paid whiners who were protected by a dinosaur union that held local governments hostage to their unreasonable demands. How hard could it be to educate malleable minds and what job is more important to our future? Besides, I had plenty of experience draw on --- grade school, high school, college, and graduate school.

After 19 years in the private sector as a publishing professional (one of your flip suggestions for complaining teachers), I decided to put my money where my mouth was. I earned my education masters degree and teaching certification in Lowell, did my student teaching in Lowell, and was fortunate to be hired as a full-time teacher in Lowell.

Though you would have your readers believe that the teachers of Lowell flee town behind the tinted windows of our luxury cars at 2:20 p.m. each day, I know that at 2:20 I still have ten minutes of class to complete before I can collect and organize the days’ work to go home to another hour or two of preparing for the next day. Most of my 30-some colleagues in the English department don’t have as far to go as I do, either. The majority live in Lowell and many of those who don’t are Lowell natives and graduates of the school where they now teach. (How many of 800 out-of-towners you disparage fit that profile?) The truth is, I belong to the minority among my peers --- I grew up near Chicago and live 14 miles from the Mill City. Sorry my parents didn’t raise me in Lowell! Until I read your screed, I never realized that where I sleep disqualifies, diminishes, or negates the work I do each day. I also didn’t realize that earning a salary that equals my pay from 20 years ago, and is close to $70,000 less than what I made at my last publishing job, makes me a city budget buster.

On one hand, you tout the private sector as the yardstick for performance, yet you would deny teachers the same benefits common to the private sector, such as standard cost-of-living raises and sick leave time.

You say that the teachers of Lowell were forced to sign a solidarity agreement on negotiations, yet nobody forced my hand to sign off on the principle that terms of employment always need to be clearly established and agreed to by employer and employee --- just like in the private sector.

You would have the public believe that a desire to maintain an established health plan is an extravagant perk for senior teachers, yet fail to detail how alternate plans might provide inferior coverage for those who may need it the most.

You spread fear and divisiveness about a coming strike, yet nobody has threatened or proposed such an action.

Your stated belief that teachers who live outside Lowell “could care less if the city goes bankrupt” merely because they don’t happen to live in the city is ridiculous. It’s as erroneous and ridiculous as your claim that Paul Georges travels in a Lincoln Town Car or a Mercedes. You and I both know the make and model of his car isn’t either.

That's pretty funny Jim. The city government and taxpayers are upset the other city employees went without? Seriously where do you get this stuff.

I'll believe the government and taxpayers care when there aren't two firehouses closed every day. Fifteen years and counting on that, while the overall city spending has nearly doubled. I'm still waiting for the outrage.

Clearly Welcome Back Kotter and Always Right in Lowell have only worked in the Private Sector and never spent a day in a classroom. Well I have spent years in both the private sector and public education. I find it interesting that you are so ignorant about the time teachers dedicate to their profession. Do you work on projects at home, analyze reports, read work related articles, make phone calls, attend "work related" golf tournaments to get a business deal done...and then say you work 50-80 hours a week. You give yourself credit for that don't you? Then whey don't you give teachers the same respect? Do you honestly think teachers walk into a classroom on the first day of school in August and someone has set up their classroom? Do you truely believe that in a 50 minute prep period I can call parents, repsond to administrators, prepare quality lesson plans, comment on student work, analyze assessment data....well I certainly can't. Teachers spend a lot of time outside of the classroom helping their students, talking to parents, meeting with peers, developing their lessons, generating new ideas, and attending required training for certification.

Hmmmm I have an MBA and worked in the private sector 60 - 70 hours a week, making $90,000 a year and my job was stressful.

Now I have a M.Ed and I still work 70 hours a week making $50,000 a year and I've never worked harder or been happier. The editor, and others who think teachers work part time really should come and teach in the schools. You complain incessantly about our glorious benefits, but yet you won't become a public school teacher. I don't understand why. In as little as two years you can earn a Masters Degree, student teach for 4 months without pay, take 3 state MTEL tests, apply for licensure, and then find a teaching job. Once you have that make sure you are enrolled in a formal mentoring program and continue to take mandatory courses on your time.

In my business career, I had my degree, collected my pay, took professional development training voluntarily, but was never required to do what is mandated in teaching.

If you are miserable in your job do something about it, but please stop disrepecting the teaching profession when you have not taught in a public school and clearly do not understand what it takes help children achieve excellence.

I would not be surprised if you are also the people who say... Stay at Home mothers sit around all day eating Bon Bons.

Dear Welcome Back Kotter,

Please come into a classroom and deal with the aftermath of a child getting sick on the rug, or the table, or the clasroom floor. Please go into the bathrooms and deal with the unflused toilets. Please come and take care of the cockroaches that live some of our students' backpacks. Please take care of the blood from the bloody nose or the child who is being abused by family members. Please bring food for our students who eat only school breakfast and lunch. Please bring some clean clothes...they don't even have to be new...for our students who come to school in rags and sandals in the winter. Please bring some new computers for us. Please come and call the parents of the children who are late and absent 3 or more days a week....we need them in our classroom...they are part of our team. Please talk to the Literacy and Math Specialists about strategies to help our struggling kids learn more...I want every student on or above grade level. Please develop some learning activities to challenge our students who are above grade level. Please come and repair some furniture, my duct tape is running low.

If you could take care of the above things, then I'm sure I could "Just Teach" as you say. And yes, I could leave at 3:00!

I am a classroom teacher, I'm also the CEO of my classroom, the CFO, the Public Relations Manager, the Purchasing Manager, the Social Worker, the mediator, the Custodian, and IT Specialist. I spent $3000 of my own money last year buying books, supplies, and activities. How much of your money did you invest in your job which was not expensed in the company's expense account?

well, i am right now attending one of the schools located in Lowell. Lowell highschool, i am a sophmore and i have realized that many of your so called statements about the teachers are very wrong. Many students can tell you are incorrect because our teachers actually stay up trying to figure out ways so we can learn, they help us out when we have no help near us, and yes many of the teachers live blocks away from me. If you have something to talk about Jimc you should take the time to acually see lowell and actually be apart of it. Now if you have done so then you have seen the wrong side of lowell. I actually admire many teachers in lowell highschool, they visited many students when they were hurt. They have seen me and many other students working and yes its been after 6 pm. Have you noticed noones called the police. I have been living in Lowell for about 2 years and all i have seeen from Lowell highschool teachers is that they help, they actually care and most important do not act like many of those comments you have said.All i say is stop with those crazy thoughts of yours because you are wrong.If you only knew that i have seen many teachers jogging right near me. Yes i am not going to lie there are students who can not read at the level they should be reading but have you noticed that those students could learn if they wanted to. Many teachers try their hardest to teach but students do not want to learn. Its hard for teachers. So if teachers do that then maybe dentists tell people they need braces just for their money I dont think its possible for a teacher to not teach what they are told to teach.

sorry but i didnt realize WELCOME BACK TO KOTTER that many teachers are slackers because yes they say those things because they feel offended. heck i feel offended and im not a teacher i am a student. You say so many bad things about teachers but you have no idea what you would do if you had a group of students in front of you. will you take the advice of jimc and call 911? i actually feel bad for anyone who thinks life as a teacher is great because it isnt. Daily headachs noone complains, become more then student teacher but family, so many days with the teachers that we know mostly everything about them. we learn in fun ways, like becoming a teacher for a day and teach the rest of my peers. you should never say that teachers do not do anything but some do lack the sources because maybe the state doesnt help. i will apologize for having to responed to this disgrace. i do not want to stup to your level.yes many students dont learn but remember this from those who do not you could try and help them. see if you could handle the intense lifestyle of a teacher.

Glad to see so many teachers responding to my claims that they whine too much by doing more whining. Talk about proving my point.

Wah, Wah, Wah. You work a 6 hour day and complain about all the work you have to do after hours. Thank god you don't have to work an 8 hour day and complete projects after hours like most of society. You'd really have something to whine about then.

Am I supposed to feel sorry for you because you deal with kids every day? Don't fast food workers, bus drivers, tour operators, amusement park workers and hundreds of other professions deal with kids every single day? As I said, trade places with them for a week or two and see how fast you run back to the classroom. At least you have the ability to punish these kids. Most people who deal with the misbehavior have no choice but to put up with it and shut their mouth or risk getting fired.

As for Greg from Concord, why did you give up over 70,000 in salary to go back to the classroom? Funny that you would do that for such a lousy, disrespected position, isn't it? Could it be because you actually enjoy the comfort of working 180 days a year, having all your vacations pre-scheduled and pre-approved? Or maybe you enjoy the above average salary, killer benefit and retirement plans? Or is it because you lost that private sector job due to the economic forces that affect the average taxpayer? Namely, not enough money equals not enough jobs. Except if you're a teacher. Then you just go back to the public trough, pile some more tax burden on the working people of this city, and whine about it every chance you get.

Hey Jim, I have lasted 18 years in the teaching profession. I am new to Lowell, but not new to teaching. And to all of you that think teachers are overpaid, then you haven't seen CA or CT. They make FAR more than teachers do here, and yet the cost of living is about the same. I know, I used to work in one of those states, and I took a very substantial paycut when I came here.

And if you think I only work 6 hours a day, you obviously don't understand the teaching profession. When you total all the work I bring home, after hours spent at various school functions, and courses taken to maintain my credential, then I work far more than the average 40 hour week. And I do it without the hour and a half "business" lunches.

As I see it, the antiquated town governments contribute to the excessive costs. When every town has to run their own school district along with their city government, police force, fire department, etc., it is a given that budgets are going to be tight. But if there was a system to share the burden of these costs, similar to those in states that operate by county and not town by town, those costs could be lowered. But of course, I know that New Englanders are very proud of their local governing, so that will never happen.

I also worked in the private sector and am now teaching at Lowell High School. I teach because I am good at it; I teach because I enjoy it. Not everyone can teach, just like not everyone can be a surgeon or an artist. I don't teach for the money, and I certainly don't do it for the time. I teach for the satisfaction of seeing the look on a kid's face when they finally understand a concept and for the challenge of figuring out a way to come up with a different method to present it when the first way fails. I love looking out over a group of kids and hearing someone excitedly yell out "oh, I get it" and knowing that I am responsible for that. It's not always easy. It takes a great deal of perserverance. After a day of work in the private sector, where I made a lot more money, I was able to come home, put my feet up, watch t.v., or read a book. I worked hard all day and sometimes had to work late in order to complete my work, but when I went home I was able to leave my job at the office. Now I find my thoughts are almost always occupied with school. When I take a walk, I'm thinking about how can I present new material, what kind of activities can I do to make it more concrete. And contrary to Mr. Campanini's comments about teachers not seeing Lowell after 6 p.m., I often spend my evenings attending school events. I feel that supporting students out of school is just as important as supporting them in school. I do watch t.v., but I usually have my laptop and I'm searching the internet for new ideas on how to present material. My question is what private sector are we talking about? Are we talking about people with college degress? I guess I didn't realize what an incredible company I worked for because not only did I have unlimited sick time and unlimited personal time, but I could take my lunch whenever I wanted to, and I didn't have to have coverage in order to visit the facilities. And yes I had health insurance. Many of us who are teaching have degrees that would enable us to earn more money elsewhere, but we have a passion to teach. We are educated professionals and need to be treated as such.

I also worked in the private sector and am now teaching at Lowell High School. I teach because I am good at it; I teach because I enjoy it. Not everyone can teach, just like not everyone can be a surgeon or an artist. I don't teach for the money, and I certainly don't do it for the time. I teach for the satisfaction of seeing the look on a kid's face when they finally understand a concept and for the challenge of figuring out a way to come up with a different method to present it when the first way fails. I love looking out over a group of kids and hearing someone excitedly yell out "oh, I get it" and knowing that I am responsible for that. It's not always easy. It takes a great deal of perserverance. After a day of work in the private sector, where I made a lot more money, I was able to come home, put my feet up, watch t.v., or read a book. I worked hard all day and sometimes had to work late in order to complete my work, but when I went home I was able to leave my job at the office. Now I find my thoughts are almost always occupied with school. When I take a walk, I'm thinking about how can I present new material, what kind of activities can I do to make it more concrete. And contrary to Mr. Campanini's comments about teachers not seeing Lowell after 6 p.m., I often spend my evenings attending school events. I feel that supporting students out of school is just as important as supporting them in school. I do watch t.v., but I usually have my laptop and I'm searching the internet for new ideas on how to present material. My question is what private sector are we talking about? Are we talking about people with college degress? I guess I didn't realize what an incredible company I worked for because not only did I have unlimited sick time and unlimited personal time, but I could take my lunch whenever I wanted to, and I didn't have to have coverage in order to visit the facilities. And yes I had health insurance. Many of us who are teaching have degrees that would enable us to earn more money elsewhere, but we have a passion to teach. We are educated professionals and need to be treated as such.

Well said "been there done that".

Mr. Jim C. I read today that you were away at a newspaper conference in Denver. Will you count these as 24 hour work days since you are away representing the Lowell Sun? You made the amusing comment that when you are home you work "12 hour days". 3 of which are at "local" events representing the Lowell Sun. Let me guess, by represent you mean you have to sit down, eat a free meal, and socialize. Sometimes you may have to sit and watch a spinners game! Once in a while someone may ask you to speak. Now, do you really think you work 12 hour days Jim C.? Do you actually know what a 12 hour day is? Let me give you an idea. It's waking up at 5:00 am in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. Then reporting to roll call and a 5 minute safety meeting. Putting on dirty overalls because you only had time to eat and sleep since your last shift. Then you report to the drill floor and work like you never imagined a human body could do for 12 hours straight. If the rig manager does not have a CEO down his throat you may get a 15 minute break to eat and go to the bathroom. If drilling is behind or their is a problem, nobody gets a break. 15 minutes of lost drilling time equals 150,000 dollars. People get tired and careless, fingers are smashed, some are lost. This is a 12 hour job Mr. Jim C, not your two hour lunches, air conditioned meetings, and those grueling 3 hours you spend at local events during the evening. You have totally been blown out of the water on this Blog. You need to say no-mas and issue an apology to all Lowell School Teachers for what you wrote. Besides Welcome Back Kotter, whom is probably related to you, you are being blown away. Students have even written. Please give up. BTW, before I became a teacher I was a proud roughneck who was being trained to become a Barge Engineer offshore. There are days I leave my teaching job more exhausted than those days. What now Mr. Kotter?

as usual everybody looks at how nuch money is being spent and thinks that that will have some impact on student performance. ed reform has pumped untold billions into cities and towns. brand new sparkling buildings going up everywhere. teacher salaries (and administrator salaries) up... way up, across the board. what does any of that have to do with the one variable that matters most by a huge margin? student effort, motivation, home life situation (parent involvement, etc) is the most important item in the whole equation. no teacher, at any salary, can force a kid to learn, or be interested, or motivated. if the kid doesn't show up every day ready, willin and able to work hard nothing else matters. private and parochial schools have way better results for a fraction of the cost. their buildings are old, their teachers make WAY less and the kids do fine. how can this possibly happen when they spend so much less. what's the major difference?

Good teachers make a difference, ten percentile points, according to recent studies, over bad teachers. That is why you want to make sure your school system's compensation package is competitive enough so that it is not picking from the bottom of the barrel.

Hey Striker, keep that load of bull confined to your union meetings. Nobody else is buying it.

You left a job that pays 70k a year more to come work a job where you're more tired than when you worked those long days. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Stop! You're killing me! Please, save that for someone who buys it. Is this the kind of nonsense you spout in the classroom, too? No wonder so many schools get failing grades.

You teaching folk crack me up. You're nothing but a bunch of puppets. Keep spouting those talking points that Georges is feeding you, and come September, you just might find yourself back on that barge.

Keep bashing teachers everyone who is not in favor of Lowell kids getting the biotech and nanotech jobs UML keeps promising. You will get what you wish for, a lock step and boring school system that drives away all the best science and math teachers, check Springfield for proof. And, on top of that, when investors look to start a business here they will in fact check out what the city's attitudes are toward public education and when they see the invective, false statements and name calling here from 'the paper of record' they will RUN for the hills. Please, anyone who continues to think that teachers only work the number of hours in the school day is either uninformed or is intentionally disruptive to a serious discussion about education. And, while the Sun is at it, how about a pole to determine how many Lowell teachers spend out of pocket money for classroom supplies. Does the Sun's editor have to buy his own computer????

Jim,
Ninety percent of what you say is inflammatory and counter-productive. Teachers in Lowell are hardworking and dedicated for the most part. They have a much harder job than teachers in the suburbs and it's great that they are now getting compensated as much or more than those teachers. There was a time when our teachers were underpaid, but that is no longer the case. Now, the pendulum has swung the other way. And, I have to admit I agree with the 10% of your post where you touch on the issues of salary increases and health insurance. The union wants more and more but without giving anything in return: the health insurance premiums are breaking the budget, so that every funding increase is eaten up before any benefit can reach the students. Back
in 2003, the Union refused to compromise and the losers were the new, younger teachers who had to be laid off and the students, as usual. In these games of chicken between the Union and the City, the students always lose.

As a concerned parent who lives in Lowell, I make it a point to try and understand the challenges facing my city's educational system. Some comments I've read in this forum address (ridicule?)the sub-par student achievement at Lowell schools. Most seem to lay the blame entirely on teachers. As with every issue, it is important to have some perspective, some context. In one of your posts ,Jim, you mentioned there are other dynamics at work, like poverty and "changing a culture of low expectations in every household." Let me elaborate.

Without making excuses(and don't write this off as a liberal rant--I am not a liberal), I believe readers can agree there are special challenges facing those who teach in urban areas like Lowell.

First, poverty has many adverse consequences on a child's education. For example, numerous studies have shown there is a direct correlation between poor diet and poor academic achievement. Some school children in Lowell were born into and still live in poverty and don't enjoy what some of us take for granted: nutritious meals.

Secondly, urban teachers deal with more behavioral issues than their counterparts in tonier suburbs. Affluent parents are generally more involved in their children's education and lives. Based on the median income in Lowell, I think it safe to say teachers in Lowell don't get the parental backing that teachers in wealthier communities get.

Thirdly, children whose parents are highly educated tend to do better in school. There is a positive correlation between a parent's educational level and their children's academic success. A look at the Department of Labor's web site shows residents in surrounding towns have more post-secondary education than residents in Lowell.

In spite of all this, Lowell teachers are asked to
educate their students to the same standards as communities whose student population do not share equal disadvantages. In my view, the major difference is in the family unit. Schools whose student population come from homes whose parents are involved, educated and enjoy a decent level of economic prosperity have a distinct advantage in educating those students.

(Just a little aside for those who harbor a grudge against teachers who never "roughed" it in the private sector. Such comments are cliche and misinformed, leading me to believe that perhaps those making them are victims of a failed education which would explain their vitriol against teachers. Or perhaps these "bloggers'" intellectual incompetence is of their own design and doing. Whatever the case, when someone becomes a teacher, he or she has no choice but to join a union. I doubt many teachers made their career choice simply to become a union member. I have been a member of two unions (I.B.E.W. and Teamsters) and have not always had positive experiences with unions. Then again, I have not always had positive experiences in the "private sector." Not everybody who is a union member blindly follows union leadership, and I witnessed more Lemming-like sucking-up in my private sector experience.)

Teaching in Lowell is not like teaching in Chelmsford or Groton. This is not a slight against those teachers. The playing field for urban teachers is not level, yet we expect, as we should, the same results. In an urban environment,not every parent is going to be supportive, not every child is born into financial security or a two parent household, not every child has a parent who can help his or her child with their math homework, science project or how to write an essay that is coherent, concise and, above all, clear in acceptable English. (It seems from some of the entries I've read --especially from teachers--that essay writing is a lost form, and all this from people whose first language is English.) However, the urban teacher must do what some parents can't or won't do for their children. They have an extra challenge helping those in their charge achieve academic success.

Yes, we need to expect a lot from teachers. However,just as there are incompetent teachers, there are incompetent electricians, doctors, real estate agents, Fed-Ex drivers and many others in the private sector.

But Americans are never happy --with our victim mentality culture--unless we have someone to blame. However, we shouldn't be wagging our fingers only at teachers.

Teaching our children is ultimately the job of educators and they do children who have socio-economic challenges a tremendous disservice if they expect less than excellence. But blaming teachers is easy. Blaming the union is easy. Blaming administrators is easy. Even though some teachers, the union and administrators are culpable, the harder thing to do is to place some blame where it really belongs: on the parents-- those who never attend a parent-teacher conference, who blame teachers for all their children's academic failures, who don't teach their child to respect authority, who always side with their child against the school. It is time we expect parents to do their part as well. Parents should share the blame in equal measure for why Lowell schools are failing.

H. Klinton vs. Obama. How you think who will win elections in USA?